1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic analyzer for performing qualitative and quantitative analyses of living samples, such as blood and urine, and more particularly to a multi-test automatic analyzer capable of analyzing the same sample on a plurality of analysis tests.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an automatic analyzer, when a plurality of analysis tests are requested for one patient sample, the patient sample is divided into small volumes (child samples are pipetted from a parent sample), and respective analyses are performed in a particular order, e.g., in a test registration order. However, when the sample volume is small, such as a sample of a child patient, it sometimes happens that the sample is exhausted prior to performing the analysis on a test important for diagnosis, and the requested analysis tests cannot be completely finished. One proposed solution is to make higher priority in analysis order settable to the test important for diagnosis so that the important test can be surely performed even when the sample volume is small.
Patent Reference 1 (JP,A 9-257804) discloses an automatic analyzer with the function of pipetting a sample and performing analyses of the pipetted samples in accordance with the analysis priority order, which has been set by an operator in advance, when the sample volume in a sample tube is not larger than a certain value.